


The Exception

by o0JayWolf0o



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternia, Ashen Romance | Auspistice, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Can Town, F/M, Fluff, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Hemospectrum, Humans In Troll Romances, Imperial Drones - Freeform, M/M, Meteorstuck, No Smut, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Troll Romance (Homestuck), Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Kismesissitude, i guess thats it, sex talk but no actual smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 01:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12222609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/o0JayWolf0o/pseuds/o0JayWolf0o
Summary: Karkat, long ago, when he still lived on Alternia, resigned any and all kinds of concupiscent romance - period. He trained himself to put his feelings aside when it would only hurt him in the long run and, even when his planet was destroyed, he kept this vow up, if only to reserve his name. That being said, why is DavefuckingStrider, of all people, the only exception?





	The Exception

**Author's Note:**

> aaa good ol fluffers   
>  i wrote this because i wanted to talk about karkat and his lack of stable quadrants but then i did this and yeah

Karkat Vantas.

A mutant blood. He never went to trials or was schoolfed, but his lusus taught him everything he knew. It was almost funny how terrified he was to even set foot in his own hive, afraid that a drone had been waiting for him to return from shopping.

He had very carefully picked out what blood color to pretend he had. His neighborhood was of middle-classed trolls. These would be of olive, jade, and cerulean, while a few of the richer were indigo and some of the poorer were ochres. He knew that some special cerulean trolls had varying psychics and golds always had psionics, so he had to choose between jade, olive, and indigo.

Jades had to return to the brooding caverns very often, so he marked it off the list. He preferred not to dwell with royalty, either, and so that left only olives. Thankfully, his lusus had knowledge about olive bloods and taught Karkat exactly what they were like. Not only had their behavior been simple to mimic, but threshecutioners were also olive blooded. It was a win-win situation for the nubby-horned troll.

He made sure to often wear different clothing types. Olives wore short sleeves more of the time, but Karkat couldn’t do that, so he chose to wear a black shirt with an olive overcoat most of the time. On rare occasions, he did wear short sleeves, but he made sure to lightly cake his elbows with green makeup so they weren’t pink. This was the same with his hands. He became good with makeup because of this and would eventually be questioned by Kanaya as to why.

Drones cycled the neighborhood once every four sweeps. Karkat was not sexually mature, so he was let off the hook when he opened the door to his hive and the drones got a good look at his young, round face. As he got older, though, he started to hide instead and hope the drones didn’t breach his house and slaughter him.

Naturally, because Karkat was mutant, he couldn’t reproduce anyway. If anyone saw his face while he was, at the least, even _blushing,_ he’d be doomed, surely. He didn’t like to hang out with anyone, anyway, and made trips to the shops and stands around town swift and brisk. He never lingered long enough to draw attention to himself or have someone get a good look at him. It was key for his survival.

Because he couldn’t reproduce, he took a liking to romance movies and novels. He loathed those who got what he couldn’t have and often wondered what having an infuriating kismesis or adoring matesprit was like.

It kind of hurt that he could never have that.

* * *

 

As he lay on the hull of his recuperacoon atop a meteor traveling at the speed of light, he thought about this.

He had long ago resigned to using a fake olive blood as a charade when he learned the practice of hemo-anoning himself. It was perfect. Most trolls didn’t really give a shit, their lives already complicated enough, and he avoided contracts or papers that required him to prick his finger and show his blood color.

Now, though, the entirety of the troll race knew his blood color. To be fair, ‘the entirety’ solely referred to a mutant, a burgundy, half of an ochre, a jade, a teal, one cobalt, a purple, and one fuchsia that everyone was scared to death of. He supposed the Condesce didn’t know of his blood color, though, and brushed it away. Correcting his earlier statement, _almost_ all of the troll race knew of his blood color.

He had long ago resigned romance. That is, any kind of sexual romance. Matespritships and kismesissitudes he chose not to delve in. This is why he denied Nepeta and Terezi of their love and denied his feelings toward Sollux for a long, long time.

The only reason he didn’t root about these quadrants now was that he was ashamed. He hated himself and he hated that he couldn’t even puke without wanting to yell at himself because of his vomit’s fucking color. He hated blushing, and if he couldn’t even tolerate to look himself in the mirror when he was cut, how on earth would he be willing to fondle his shame globes for hours and clean up the mess of slurry his quadrant mates would cause?

So he was decidedly ‘asexual’, as Rose had put it. He was  _not_ aromantic, though, because he’d been in two (2) quadrants before. One with Gamzee, another with two other trolls back on Alternia when he’d stopped them from killing each other.

That begged the question: why was he feeling so undeniably red _and_ black for _Strider_ , of all people?

It was confusing. It was confusing and terrifying and he _hated_ it and himself. He hated Strider, but only sometimes, and _fuck_ he hated that too. Sometimes, Dave would laugh or smile in the most serene of ways or talk to Karkat randomly. The troll loved his voice as he rambled, wouldn’t stop spacing out while looking at that admittedly handsome face that made him flush a vibrant red. Other times, Dave would get on his nerves so much that he’d scream and throw fits and have mini-strifes with him, testing him. Dave would get right back at him and Karkat would feel hate stir in him just a little bit.

The door to Karkat’s respiteblock opened and he turned his head to the side just a little bit, letting his face set in a deep frown. Before the boy even stepped foot in the room, Karkat knew it was Strider. He never knocked.

“Yo,” Dave greeted, kicking a stray bookmark from his path before sauntering up to Karkat.

“What do you want, Dave?” Karkat said.

Dave kicked idly at the floor before shrugging. “I dunno, I’m bored, dude. Wanna chill out at Can Town with me and the Mayor?”

Karkat thought about this. In one hand, he was perfectly comfortable poised on the top of his recuperacoon, body stretched out so a bit of his shirt lifted and showed skin over the waistband of his sweatpants. On the other hand, the Mayor was amazing company, and Dave was, too. Also, stacking cans was pretty fucking fun. He weighed his options, gnawing on his lip in a blasé way while reeling these through his mind. He turned back at Dave, who seemed to shift as soon as Karkat searched his gaze through those awful shades of his. “Yeah, sure. Whatever, better than fucking lying here like some god damn fuckass all day,” he said, sliding off his ‘coon.

“Sweet.” Without waiting for another response, Dave spun around on a heel and whisked out the door, his cape flowing behind him. It kind of reminded Karkat of Eridan, but then he was sad, so he stopped thinking about the troll.

Karkat followed a bit more slowly, taking his time to be sure his block was locked and the lights were off before strolling through the quiet, dull hallways of the meteor.

The sound of Dave conversing with the Mayor in a one-sided conversation reached him before he actually saw into the room that had been claimed as Can Town.

“..yeah, I guess. Huh? I mean, sure. It’s not like I’m prancing around with- ...uh, no..?” A pause. “God, no, don’t bring him into- what? No, it’s not- but-” Dave groaned, apparently flustered. “But I’m not, you know... I don’t swing that way, bro,” he said, more quietly. Karkat still heard him, though, because he was now walking straight into the room, the sound of his feet tapping heavily on the floor. Dave shut up and turned Karkat’s way. “Yo,” he greeted, again. His face was dusted a light pink.

“What do you want, Dave?” Karkat mumbled, mocking Dave.

“What?”

“Nothing, just repeating what I said earlier like you’re doing, to save you from the embarrassment,” Karkat commented, lowering himself beside Dave a bit too close.

“Oh. Well, shit, you know sometimes I just kinda forget what the fuck I just said, y’know? Like when you walk into a room and you forget why so you’re left standing there like the worst kind of dumbass. Everyone’s just kind of looking at you like they’re confused and when they ask what the hell is going on you just shrug because what else do you say? ‘Oh, I just walked into this room and forgot what the hell I was fucking doing because I am the worst kind of dumbass,’ and, oh fuck, did I just repeat what I said? God dammit, I fucking,” Dave fumbled, his face lighting up red again. “I hate it when I start to ramble and then forget what my original point was in the first place and then just happen to be complaining about it when suddenly, oh fuck, there I go, remembering what this was about. God damn, I can’t believe I actually keep doing that, getting so distracted, y’know? You’re just so distracting, Karkles, I can’t stop staring at your face. Stop looking like that, dude, you look so confused right now, it doesn’t fit you. To be fair though, you look the best when you sleep, I mean, wait, fuck, I don’t watch you sleep dude, I swear. I just fuckin’ strolled into the common room with some good ol’ AJ, the juice of the gods, and you were on the couch out like a light and I couldn’t just erase that from my memory and shit. Kinda like _Men in Black_ , where they can just flash you with this weird shit and bam, you fucking forget what the hell just happened. I mean I could just give myself a concussion or some shit and suffer from amnesia but fuck that, I’d rather die and be reborn again. Then I wouldn’t forget your pretty face, Karkles, and- wait fuck, I mean, uh, I didn’t mean it like that, dude, no homo here, like when boys would wrestle in the hallways or some shit and then hug it out and it's like 'oh shit no homo bro lmao,' you feel? Like they can't ruin their reputation even though they're obviously gay, and- wait, I'm not gay, forget I said that, god, fuck, this conversation is really backfiring-” Karkat cut him off, mouth slightly open, because he _knew_ Dave was barely done with his ramble.

While he’d been talking, Karkat hadn’t really been paying attention to what he’d been saying. He’d been staring at the way Dave’s face twitched when he had to restrain a frown or a smile or when he tugged at the collar of his cape. He hugged himself when he embarrassed himself or ran his hands through his hair when gesturing to random things. Most of all, though, Karkat paid attention to the way Dave’s lips hesitated when rolling a word or the way his teeth, yellowed from lack of cleaning, would flash every so often.

So when Dave just kept stumbling over his words, Karkat couldn’t really resist the craving he felt. He grabbed the folds of Dave’s cape and pulled him forward, mashing their lips together. At first, their noses bumped and Karkat backed up, but he angled himself and leaned back in, his stomach doing whirls.

It was slow and awkward and Dave made a small, confused noise in the back of his throat that he’d deny later, but after a few seconds, Dave returned the kiss hesitantly. Karkat’s hands traveled up and tangled themselves in the human’s hair, deepening the kiss until they gained rhythm.

It felt like electricity was buzzing through the both of them because everything else kind of vanished in that moment. Karkat’s hands trembled with relief and excitement and he kind of wanted to puke in glee but this wasn't the most practical position to do so.

He knew, then, as he parted from Dave and panted for air, that he’d fallen deeply, madly in love with him. Oh, fuck, he knew it was bad, but he just couldn’t help himself. The prize was there and he was going to take it, dammit!

When they were both out of breath and flushing embarrassing shades of pink, everything seemed to fall back into focus. It was kind of awkward with nothing to do, so Dave surprised Karkat by leaning in one final time. By the time he’d only just barely brushed their lips together, someone cleared their throat from the hallway and the moment was ruined. Both boys jerked their heads to the source of the sound and found a grinning Rose poised oh-so-perfectly by a jittery, happy Mayor.

God damn. The Mayor had set this up, hadn’t he?

“I see you two are enjoying yourselves,” Rose smirked. Neither of the boys really had a reply to that, what with that amazing make-out session they just had, the shock of remembering the Mayor was there, as well as being interrupted by Rose of all people. “Vriska has called me to check in on you two and tell you that we’re going to discuss battle tactics now. I’ll see you there,” Rose nodded, turning heel and leaving.

After a minute of digesting what just happened, Karkat rose to his feet and held his hand out for Dave to take. When a second of doubt passed, he took the offer up and hauled himself to his feet. They, quietly and awkwardly, walked to the common room, looking everywhere but at themselves and trying to ease the shade their face was back to normalcy (as well as their heart rate). During the middle of it, Karkat caught Dave’s hand and they walked there like that until they entered, where they quickly hid all evidence of that scandalous act.

As Karkat sat down next to his probable (?) matesprit, he thought back to what he’d been thinking about before Dave barged into his room.

Yes, he was asexual and preferred not to have anyone in his concupiscent quadrants, but Dave Strider was the one and only exception. He came to the realization that he was completely and 100% okay with this, too, to put the cherry on top of this tumblefuck of a mess.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos n comments are appreciations   
>  [ tumblr ](https://o0jaywolf0o.tumblr.com)


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